Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of computers, and, more particularly, to computing system power management.
As the demand for increased computer performance grows, the demand for lower power consumption grows with it. These two goals share a fairly antagonistic relationship, in that decreasing power consumption while increasing or maintaining performance can be difficult. Techniques to reduce power consumption have been developed, but system designers are constantly searching for new ways to reduce power consumption. Although not necessarily obvious to individual users, owners of data centers are fully aware that the electricity costs associated with data centers are one of the largest overhead costs. Furthermore, as power management has advanced, power management complexity has also increased. Some computing systems are designed to include a microprocessor dedicated to power management. Even in simple power management implementations, the amount of information and monitoring to achieve good power savings is large.